function setCookie(name, value, expires, path, domain, secure) 
{
	// set time, it's in milliseconds
	var today = new Date();
	today.setTime(today.getTime());

	/*
	If the expires variable is set, make the correct expires time. The current script below will set 
	it for x number of days. To make it for hours, 	delete * 24, for minutes, delete * 60 * 24
	*/
	if (expires)
	{
	expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
	}
	var expires_date = new Date(today.getTime() + (expires));
	
	//Conditional statements for setting vars. i.e - If expires exists, set expires equal to "expires=" + expires._date.toGMTString(). Otherwise, set it to "".
	document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value) +
	((expires) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "") + 
	((path) ? ";path=" + path : "") + 
	((domain) ? ";domain=" + domain : "") +
	((secure) ? ";secure" : "");
}



// this fixes an issue with the old method, ambiguous values 
// with this test document.cookie.indexOf( name + "=" );
function getCookie(check_name) 
{
	// first we'll split this cookie up into name/value pairs
	// note: document.cookie only returns name=value, not the other components
	var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' );
	var a_temp_cookie = '';
	var cookie_name = '';
	var cookie_value = '';
	var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f
	
	for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ )
	{
		// now we'll split apart each name=value pair
		a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies[i].split( '=' );
		
		// and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it
		cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,'');
	
		// if the extracted name matches passed check_name
		if (cookie_name == check_name)
		{
			b_cookie_found = true;
			// we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is):
			if (a_temp_cookie.length > 1)
			{
				cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') );
			}
			// note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned
			return cookie_value;
			break;
		}
		a_temp_cookie = null;
		cookie_name = '';
	}
	if (!b_cookie_found)
	{
		return null;
	}
}